I can’t help but be endeared by an artist who paints her self-portrait with such orange-ness! Stratoz and I went to see the Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot summer 2012 exhibit at the Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College to escape the heat and be refreshed by art.
Gilot turned 90 in 2012, and is featured in Vogue, in an article called Life After Picasso. She was with Picasso from 1943-1953, starting when she was 21, and he was 61. Gilot left Picasso, who told her she was “headed into the desert” without him, that she would only be a curiosity, someone defined by intimacy with Picasso. When I read who her next husband was, I thought, “that can’t be the actual Jonas Salk, developer of the first polio vaccine. . .” but that’s who it was. I am also endeared by her account of meeting him:
On a trip to Los Angeles in 1969, a friend introduced her to Jonas Salk. She had no interest in meeting him—she thought scientists were boring. But soon afterward, he came to New York and invited her to have tea at Rumplemayer’s. “He didn’t have tea; he ordered pistachio and tangerine ice cream,” she recalls. “I thought, Well, a scientist who orders pistachio and tangerine ice cream at five o’clock in the afternoon is not like everybody else!”
TRANSITIONS: WORKS BY FRANÇOISE GILOT
Main Gallery
Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA
June 1 to Sept. 23, 2012
Transitions: Works by Francoise Gilot focuses on the evolution of Gilot’s approach to composition and color beginning with her seminal Labyrinth Series and including key works into the 21st century. Rich abstraction in a bold, powerful palette, a mainstay of her work, transitions to references to the figure, botanicals, and still life. Iconic images such as orbs, birds, water and earth elements are investigated in tandem with color juxtapositions that are built up from layers and layers of pigment.
The exhibition is curated by Mel Yoakum, Ph.D., author of Stone Echoes: Original Prints by Francoise Gilot and a scholar of her work.
More orange goodness at my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.